


Burning Tallow

by Butterfly



Series: Sandstorms [2]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-03-26
Updated: 2005-03-26
Packaged: 2017-10-26 18:24:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/286490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Butterfly/pseuds/Butterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Samantha Carter always did want all the answers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burning Tallow

"Did you need something? I'm kinda busy here." Daniel was trying to keep his tone on the nicer side of snappy, but he was pretty sure that he was failing.

"I just... really wanted to talk to you." Doctor Carter pushed the rest of her way into the tent, letting the flap fall down. The candlelight shone off her face -- her skin was golden now, finally past the reddened and peeling stage that she'd seemed to live in the last few months. It'd taken Carter longer to adjust to Egypt than it had Sam, but Sam had been used to roughing it. He wasn't sure if Carter had ever even gone _camping_ before her trip into the past.

She was as beautiful as Sam had always been, only the odd twist to her mouth giving away that she wasn't the woman that Daniel had known. Carter wasn't as twitchy as she'd been when those three had arrived, but she probably wouldn't ever be as graceful as Sam. Even if she was getting laid every night.

Daniel turned away from her, lighting a candle.

"About?"

"Me. The me that you knew. The me that I saw on that tape. It's been months and... you haven't said anything," Carter said, her words tripping over each other. Daniel focused his gaze on the light of the candle; though it wasn't as steady and even as the candles he'd known in his real life, it was good enough for what he needed it for. Such a new invention, in this time, and such a simple thing, in his memory.

"Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter was a brilliant scientist," Daniel said, reaching out to touch the flame for an instant, leaving it there only long enough to feel the heat without the pain. "But even though she knew that changing the past could have serious consequences, she agreed that it might work when I made the suggestion. She spent every moment of the rest of her short life here regretting that decision. She died... was executed... in a dank hellhole of a prison cell, thousands of years before she was even born."

The silence that filled the tent was thick and uncomfortable. Maybe next time, Carter would know not to ask the question. Not unless she really wanted an answer.

Her robes rustled, she was moving closer to him. Daniel flexed his hand, forced himself not to twist around and grab her before...

She put a hand on his shoulder, gently. Hesitantly.

"I know that we're not what you'd hoped for," she said, her voice not close enough to Sam's. "But we're all that you've got."

"Unless I failed again," Daniel said, matching her soft tone with his own, resisting the urge to shrug away her hand. "And that's highly probable, Doctor Carter."

She let out a huff of air. Frustration or anger, he'd guess. "I'm not going to apologize for who I am."

"No one asked you to." He could reach back, wrap his hand around her wrist, snap it in one quick movement. She'd scream, and maybe Jack would come running. He'd take one look at the situation and shoot Daniel. Quick and clean. Jack wasn't a monster, after all, but just a simple soldier, once retired and twice damned.

He hadn't asked this Jack about Charlie, but he had a feeling. Jack was Jack, he'd learned that over fourteen years ago. Jack would always be Jack.

Sometimes, he wondered if that was a good enough reason to hate the man.

"Daniel..." So fucking close and just so damn far.

"I'm busy, Carter," he said, finally. "Come back another day."

"Okay." The weight of her hand left his shoulder. She moved back across the tent, light filling it for a moment when she left.

Daniel lifted his hand to the flame of the candle again, clenching his teeth together as the heat turned to pain. He stood there for a moment longer, finally dropping his hand down.

Extinguishing the light.

  
_the end_   


  



End file.
